There is a growing need among both individuals and enterprises for access to a commonly available, cost effective network that provides speedy, reliable service. The Internet serves as a good example of the increased demands that have been placed on data networks. At first, Internet access consisted of text only data transfers. Recently, with the popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the construction of numerous sites with high quality content, coupled with the development of Internet browsers such as Mosaic, Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, the use of graphics, audio, video and text has surged on the Internet. Although graphics, audio and video make for a much more interesting way to view information as opposed to plain text, bandwidth consumption is significantly higher. A simple background picture with accompanying text requires approximately ten times the bandwidth needed by text alone. Real-time audio and streaming video typically need even more bandwidth. Because of the increased requirement for bandwidth, activities such as browsing home pages or downloading graphics, audio and video files can take a frustratingly long period of time. As use of the Internet and online services continues to spread, so does the use of more complex applications, such as interactive video games, telecommuting, business to business communications and videoconferencing. These complex applications place severe strains on data networks because of the intensive bandwidth required to deliver data-rich transmissions. The lack of available bandwidth in data networks is the primary barrier preventing many applications from entering mainstream use. Just as processing power limited the effectiveness of early PCs, bandwidth constraints currently limit the capabilities of today's modem user.
Most computer modem users access data through the standard telephone network, known as plain old telephone service (POTS). Equipped with today's speediest modems, dial up modems on a POTS network can access data at a rate of 28.8, 33.6 or 56 Kbps. Dial up modem transmission rates have increased significantly over the last few years, but POTS throughput is ultimately limited to 64 Kbps. While this rate may be acceptable for some limited applications like e-mail, it is a serious bottleneck for more complex transactions, such as telecommuting, videoconferencing or full-motion video viewing. Another network delivery system is asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL). Offering a downstream capacity of 6 Mbps or more to the home, ADSL has the downstream capacity to handle the most complex data transfers, such as full motion video, as well as an upstream capacity of at least 500 Kbps. However, due to its limitation of downstream bandwidth capacity, it essentially is a single service platform. Also, since it has to overcome the challenge of reusing several thousand feet of twisted pair wiring, the electronics required at each end of the cable are complex, and therefore currently very expensive.
Hybrid fiber coax (HFC), a network solution offered by telephone and cable companies, is yet another option for delivering high bandwidth to consumers known in the art. However, HFC has limitations. HFC networks provide a downstream capacity of approximately 30 Mbps, which can be shared by up to 500 users. Upstream bandwidth is approximately 5 Mbps and also is shared. A disadvantage with HFC is that shared bandwidth and limited upstream capacity become serious bottlenecks when hundreds of users are sending and receiving data on the network, with service increasingly impaired as each user tries to access the network.
Fiber to the home (FTTH) is still prohibitively expensive in the marketplace. An alternative is a combination of fiber cables feeding neighborhood Optical Network Units (ONUs) and last leg premises connections by existing or new copper. This topology, which can be called fiber to the neighborhood (FTTN), encompasses fiber to the curb (FTTC) with short drops and fiber to the basement (FTTB), serving tall buildings with vertical drops.
One of the enabling technologies for FTTN is very high rate digital subscriber line (VDSL). The system transmits high-speed data over short reaches of twisted pair copper telephone lines, with a range of speeds depending upon actual line length.
The VDSL standard as provided by the ANSI T1E1.4 Technical Subcommittee, provides guidelines for the transmitter and receiver within the VDSL modem. Unlike ADSL, very high bit rate DSL (VDSL) is capable of providing speeds of 52 Mbps downstream and 16 Mbps upstream. ADSL is capable of 10 Mbps downstream and 800 Kbps upstream. Other standards beyond ADSL and VDSL are being considered by standards bodies. For example, VDSL2 is one such standard. VDSL standards employ discrete multi-tone modulation (DMT) as the modulation technology. The training sequences for VDSL and future DMT modems require partially blind receivers in that certain carriers may be used to transmit messages rather than being specified a priori. Therefore, receiver training methods must recognize this structure and be designed to operate in an optimal fashion in the presence of randomized signal components on some of the DMT carriers. For example, in the VDSL multicarrier standard an interleaved training signal is defined such that even numbered carriers carry fixed and predetermined bit patterns while odd numbered carriers carry message bits that must be considered random until such time that the receiver can accurately demodulate and decode the signal.
Receiver modules such as symbol synchronization, equalization, echo cancellation, and sample clock synchronization must be designed to adapt to unknown channel and impairment conditions while partially blinded. Timing recovery in the form of both symbol alignment and sample clock synchronization is typically the first step in receiver training. What is needed is an efficient method for symbol alignment in a DMT receiver for any incoming DMT symbol train.